The Royal Academy of Arts in London pledged to avoid stocking art by Jess de Wahls after a social media campaign denounced her as a âTERFâ.
Who would have thought the mob would come wielding embroidery needles and hoops?
Jess de Wahls is an artist who makes embroidered artworks and she is the most recent victim of a social media death by a thousand pricks. Pinned as a âTERFâ by a community of vitriolic thread-based art Etsy sellers. On the command of a small clique of the sewist orthodoxy, the Royal Academy of Arts in London has denounced De Wahls after the crafty cabal called for her artwork to be removed from their online shop. This has been received with elation by the âbe niceâ crowd who make money from badly stitched aphorisms and trendy slogans about niceness, feminism and⊠cops being bastards.
âYou canât support pride and TERFS at the same timeâ, said one commenter on the Royal Academyâs Instagram. Many others chimed in on unrelated posts of other peopleâs works; âso yaâall feature a transphobe and then smack a pride flag on your PFP?â This sentiment was repeated by reams of avatars who I doubt have ever visited the galleries. Leading the Lazy-Daisy-chain email campaign to spam the RA with complaints about âtheir partnership with someone who openly and boldly uses her platform to spread misinformation and hateâ was the aptly named âStill Bitter Designâ. Still Bitter produces hoops of text-art stating âA.C.A.Bâ, âKill the cops in your headâ, and âThere is no ethical consumption under capitalismâ. The maker then asks without a hint of irony that you buy their products, ditch your morals and be a patron of their angry, simplistic cross-stitch.
It isnât just the aesthetics that are infantile, the attitude is too.
School bullies rule the apps and the museums listen to their nonsense yarns. The Royal Academy posted on the 16th on its Instagram story (which is relatively ephemeral, disappearing automatically) and in a comments section on a recent and unrelated post:

âThank you to all those for bringing an item in the RA Shop by an artist expressing transphobic views to our attention. The RA is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and does not knowingly support artists who act in conflict with these values. The RA Shop previously stocked work by this artist when we were unaware of their stated views, and their work will not be stocked in futureâ. This was received with absolute glee from what could be cynically seen as one of De Wahls competitors, wimperisembroidery. They wrote to Still Bitter Design, âDID YOU HEAR THE JOYOUS NEWS? Sheâs need[sic]droppedâ, to which Still Bitter responded, âHeck yeah, go team!â
De Wahls is no stranger to being stitched up by the gender cult. Writing in 2019 on the discovery of the transgender movement and her cancellation she stated âI worry because this notion of âwrong thinkâ and wrong speakâ feels eerily reminiscent of my east German childhood, and thatâs actually quite terrifying.â
Since then her art has been thematically tied in with womenâs fight for sex-based rights and the ability to speak freely about the realities of our sex and social standing. She illustrates with complex thread patterns the moments of contemporary and historical protest and prominent activist figures.
There is a snag in feminism. The fight for all women doesnât discriminate against the obnoxious ones. Itâs sometimes painful reading the nasty brigading comments from prickly young women who are regularly leading the charge against peers. We can tie ourselves in knots trying to blame men for the behaviour of a bunch of non-binary identifying females and deny them their cruelly applied autonomy. These women who use social media as a voodoo doll to stab textual pins into opponents hoping the curses will be successful. They whisper rumours, pick scapegoats, stirring up a witch hunt whilst they are the truly malevolent force.
It is in a similar thread to the arts and crafts cancellation of Canadian Photographer and sewist Vanessa Vokey, who in 2020 was admonished, harassed and banned from various marketplace websites for her support of JK Rowling. This catapulted her into a new career as an acerbic and controversial YouTube Content creator focussing on radical feminism and transgender ideology, much to the dismay of her detractors, who also got her original channel banned.
Fortunately, Iâm sure De Wahls will turn this horrendous situation into yet more artwork. For creative women â like Vokey â severe harassment and institutional bullying spurs them to be even more passionate and expressive. This is another panel in the tapestry of womenâs oppression and a distressing clash between forms of womenâs protest needlework. There is a growing form of defiance in the womenâs movement, the attaching of green, white and violet Suffragette themed fabric to objects, coined as âHateful Haberdasheryâ. The name lampoons transactivistsâ dramatic responses (sometimes involving the police) to ribbons and thread.
A stitch in time could save nine⊠court cases. Art institutions will soon unravel if they ignore the recent legal ruling in an Employment Appeal Tribunal which found Maya Forstaterâs âgender critical viewsâ âworthy of respect in a democratic societyâ. Views that were just publicly potentially libelled and used as a reason to cancel a contract and financial impact a woman. The RA should appliquĂ© some ethics and some foresight.
Mayaâs organisation Sex-Matters has also just sent the heads of the Royal Academy a stern letter in support of the artist citing her legal rights to free expression under the Equality Act and the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Royal Academy should be ashamed of its behaviour and sets a dangerous precedent for its collection and curators. Will Picasso or Schiele be cancelled for their trespasses and abuse or is it only living women who stand up and speak the truth who are tossed out with the scraps?
Posted by Fatima M
18 June, 2021 at 3:49 pm
Jess DeWahls is a feminist and a brilliant artist. What we are seeing is the long March Through the Institutions, not only the Royal Academy but all of the establishment institutions have been captured by CRT, Transgender Orthodoxy and cancel culture. Gleichschaltung is here to stay, and Jess is just its latest victim. May I recommend this brilliant analysis of the situation?: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/better-left-unsaid
Posted by Theo HOPKINS
18 June, 2021 at 1:26 pm
The sentence âWe appreciate you holding us to accountâ must be one of the most chilling sentences since 1984.